Hello, I have installed Slacko 450 wich came with Firefox 17. I want to update it to the latest version (20 I htink).
How can I do it over the previous install? I don´t want to have two separate versions.
Thanks._________________Puppy Slacko 5.7 frugal (windows installer)
Broken Windows XP after switching from Intel to AMD

Joined: 18 May 2005Posts: 11132Location: The Peoples Republic of California

Posted: Wed 24 Apr 2013, 22:21 Post_subject:

Did Firefox come with your Slacko?

Is it a Frugal install?

If both questions are true, your current Firefox probably exists inside a read-only squash-file-system file. To delete it means you would have to remove it from the .sfs file, which involves knowing how to disassemble a squashfs, manage files within it and reassemble it.

This not hard to do, but if you don't know how, you would have to learn. Short of removing it, you can virtually delete or overwrite the existing files, if you do it this way, it is easy but the old version still exists and uses RAM space, for other intents and purposes it doesn't exist.

Does this answer help? Or maybe it causes more questions? Depends on how familiar you are with the squashfs.

FF came in Puppy Linux Windows installer Firefox 450.
I have no idea about squashfs.
Updating Puppy is complicated, there is also a newer version that what I am using now._________________Puppy Slacko 5.7 frugal (windows installer)
Broken Windows XP after switching from Intel to AMD

Yes, and there is plenty of documentation on Linux, Puppy and its comprehensive applications.

The Puppy specific help is primarily made by Puppy users and enthusiasts. Most of us are not professional authors and I don't know of anyone who has a Human Professional Editor to review the posts and documents prior to submission.

Also, there are some Linux books and other documentation people can access that is professionally written.

But even if the help is available and easy to find, there is still a factor of time and commitment. And I don't think there is a specific study curriculum.

For me, computing is primarily task oriented. I sometimes learn according to a need to perform a task. So I use the Internet to teach myself how to do what I want to do. Eventually, I can do everything I want to do with a couple exceptions which require Windows to support a specialty application.

I also have a variety of interests and I learn things because I want to learn, but don't necessarily need to learn in order to perform a task.

I think maybe one of the best help or how-to methods we have is asking questions on these forums.

Joined: 18 May 2005Posts: 11132Location: The Peoples Republic of California

Posted: Wed 24 Apr 2013, 23:55 Post_subject:

mill0001 wrote:

Rope: Firefox is easy to update. Open firefox, go to menu-help-about firefox. Click on "check for updates" and FF will update auto-magically overriding the old version.

I've never ever done it that way. But I think in this case it might be the best method available.

I also want to make some comments for people who want the latest version of software.

The latest versions on active projects are most attainable from the vendor or author. Software repositories are likely not ahead of the author's release and they are also usually behind in version numbers.

I have seen some exceptions. I think amigo has fixed the source code on more than a few inactive projects.

And even on active ones such as JWM, people on this forum have made some modifications and fixes apart or in advance of the author.

Hey Bruce, glad to see you back posting again, anyway that method of updating FF that I suggested to OP is one of the things that I really like about the browser because it's so easy to get the latest version. That being said, would you mind sharing the method you use with us please. It doesn't hurt to know "more than one way to skin the cat."

The recommmend method to update Firefox and to add SeaMonkey to Slacko is to use the Updates Manager from the Setup menu. If you have already updated it is recommended to remove the older Firefox or Seamonkey package before you upgrade. This helps preserve savefile space.

This is because Slacko ships with the Official Slackware package of Firefox which is compiled by Patrick Volkerding (Slackware maintainer) and subsequently can not update by the suggested means, even though Firefox itself would lead you to believe so. This is actually a long standing bug in Firefox (and SeaMonkey) which has been reported to Mozilla with little reaction or interest. Only the Officially released are capable of automatically updating. Thes are likely compiled on Ubuntu and are not recommended for Slacko. That said, they probably work, no guarantees from me.

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@ OP

You can be forgiven for not reading the release notes even though it is highly recommended. This question crops up time and time again, that's why I added it to the release note and in fact that's why release notes exist. A search (see Semme's post) may well have revealed the answer to your query.

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@ ALL (other than OP)

Wouldn't hurt you guys to read the release notes either if you are going to offer advice. I know it can be a bit difficult with Puppy's fractured nature these days but it can mean the difference to offering noobs a quality solution which in turn they can offer or a poor solution that may lead to problems further down the track.

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HTH ALL

sincerely,

01micko

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EDIT

Apologies, we are referring to 5.4, which wasn't as clearly documented, though the advice is the same. There was that particular advice available for 5.4 but a couple of months ago I was asked to remove some stuff from the server and unfortunately these notes were included (attached, use gunzip to decompress).

Hey Bruce, glad to see you back posting again, anyway that method of updating FF that I suggested to OP is one of the things that I really like about the browser because it's so easy to get the latest version. That being said, would you mind sharing the method you use with us please. It doesn't hurt to know "more than one way to skin the cat."

Tman had made an add-on .sfs of Firefox, and noted that you can upgrade it just like a normally installed version._________________Add swapfileWellMinded Search

Joined: 18 May 2005Posts: 11132Location: The Peoples Republic of California

Posted: Thu 25 Apr 2013, 19:08 Post_subject:

mill0001 wrote:

@Bruce B:

Hey Bruce, glad to see you back posting again, anyway that method of updating FF that I suggested to OP is one of the things that I really like about the browser because it's so easy to get the latest version. That being said, would you mind sharing the method you use with us please. It doesn't hurt to know "more than one way to skin the cat."

1) remove firefox and/or seamonkey program files from the original .sfs file. this involves remaking the .sfs file. I also remove other files I don't want in the .sfs file

2) remake the .sfs file's files. (I do this only done once)

3) after that, there are many ways to install firefox. one way would be to make another sfs file just for firefox. then mount it on a mount point, the most convenient place is the original firefox directory. Maybe it is /usr/lib/firefox

Put mount instructions /etc/rc.d/rc.local. By 'mounting' the firefox.sfs file, it avoids setting it up on a loop device. If for some reason the user wants it on a loop device, Puppy has features to do this automatically on boot time.

But if one knows he wants the files every time the machine is run, it seems more straightforward to mount it on a directory.

My primary reason for the squashfs is to save space, but these days disk space is so cheap and drives are so big there isn't as much incentive to save space as there was in the past.

A person could also simply install the files to the original directory name in the pupsave file.

Other places to store the program files also. There are many options available.